Wednesday, 3 July 2013

This time last year I was preparing a post on the aircraft flown by wilde Sau ace Friedrich-Karl Müller of 1./NJGr 10. Thanks to the generosity of M. Jean-Yves Lorant in loaning photographs of the actual aircraft, Anders Hjortsberg was able to recreate Müller's G-6/AS "Red 2" Moskito hunter as seen during July 1944.

That post (link below) has subsequently become one of the most viewed on this blog and has inspired a number of expert modellers one of whom is Jean Barby.

In France Jean Barby's work has appeared in Wingmasters and Avions magazines and here he shares images of his 1:48th scale model of Müller's G-6/AS "Red 2" based on the photographs and Ander's profile artwork. The base kit is the Hasegawa G-10 and Jean has used the MDC resin conversion set to produce a G-6/ AS; as Jean put it " what inspired me to produce this model was simply Anders' superb profile artwork.."

Click on the images to see a full-screen view,

This 1./NJGr 10 Moskito hunter as flown by Friedrich-Karl Müller during July-August 1944 is a Bf 109 G-6/AS "Red 2". WNr. is not known. Given the camouflage and the stencil below the canopy we surmised that this machine was probably built by Mtt. Regensburg. Jean has finished the lower surfaces in black - judging from the other photos that I have been able to study this appears the most likely option. The Kennziffer '2' is confirmed as red from Müller's log book. The aircraft features a red fuselage band (just visible in one image), pointing to this as being an ex-JG 300 aircraft. All of Müller's aircraft can be assumed to have sported a rudder scoreboard, from his Fw 190 'Green 3' to his final K-4 - here he has 22 victories (July 1944)- the 23rd resulted in the award of the Ritterkreuz. Beautiful rendition Jean.. superbe maquette Jean et merci mille fois pour les images.." ..following two months rest and convalescence I resumed combat flying during July 1944 and was posted to Nachtjagdgruppe 10 in Bonn where I met up again with my old comrade Kurt Welter. By this time he had accumulated 22 victories and in two sorties on 18 and 19 July had even managed to add three Mustangs to his tally.. NJGr. 10 flew the latest model of the Bf 109 - the folding hood no longer featured the heavy metal framework of previous versions. However even better for us was the improved supercharger which enabled higher top speeds and a ceiling of some 14,000 metres - during a check flight on 3 August 1944 I reached a speed of 680 km/h at more than 6,000 metres altitude. I had never flown at these sorts of speeds in a 109! On 13 August 1944 our Staffel moved to Rheine and at 23h27 I was scrambled to intercept a Mosquito. The controller gave me a vector that took me over the Ruhr where I orbited at 9,000 metres. I was given constant changes of heading - our radar posts evidently had their work cut out trying to pinpoint the English pilot. The night sky was exceptionally bright - visibility was at least 5 km. After 60 minutes of fruitless orbiting I returned empty-handed to Rheine. Here I learned that Kurt Welter had just brought down his first Mosquito following a chase that had taken him north of Hanover. This feat was of course celebrated in due fashion as the occasion warranted - certain pilots including our Kommandeur Hptm.Friedrich-Karl Müller were soon very much the worse for wear and took the best part of a day to get over their hangovers. As a rule we tended to drink far too much....."Fw. Fritz Gniffke of 1./ NJGr.10